17

It was my mom that got us moving again, assigning all of us to the various chores that needed to be done to clean up from breakfast. After we were done, our moms pulled Kelli and me into the living room to ask us a million questions about everything under the sun. Yes we loved each other and, yes, we were in love with each other. Yes, we had moved in together. Kelli was making sure I was eating right. Yes, we were keeping up with our classes. No, no scientists had come to ask about my ears and tail, and we explained again about how we believed that the magic that fueled the transformation bent reality enough that my being a Neko was considered normal but rare. The questions kept coming for probably twenty minutes, and I would occasionally glance over at our dads, sitting around the table talking about whatever. They were the lucky ones, not getting grilled for the umpteenth time.

Then mom asked about what had happened with Alan, and that opened up a very hairy line of questioning. I explained again about Alan's cheating, which led to Cassandra's shop that first day, which pointed to the McAlister's party and what we were doing there the whole time. Now Kelli and I had kept the unnecessary details, and nearly all the sexual details, to a bare minimum, but when Kelli's mom catches a scent she is worse than an alligator for letting go. Eventually some detail of the sexual nature of my transformation was pulled begrudgingly from Kelli and me, and eventually her mom picked up on and teased out the slightest hint from the two of us about Paul. All I could think at that point was Oh Shit.

"So you are basically telling us that even though you two got together on New Year's, that there is some other boy still in the picture. And you are ok with this Kelli?"

"Mom, it's not exactly what you think," Kelli replied. "There is a lot more to the story, and it has everything to do with Myka's transformation."

"Well I can't wait to hear this," my mom muttered, as our dads came over to join us.

I heaved a frustrated sigh at that point and launched into a bit more detailed description of what my transformation was going to mean. It was difficult to explain to my parents about my aspect, the Aspect of Love, and what that entailed. They all had a hard time accepting that I was going to probably have several different lovers, and that Kelli both knew and accepted this. It seemed to go over a tiny bit better when we mentioned that we knew that Kelli would have to share my body with others but that my heart and soul were hers and only hers.

"Look mom, I don't mind that I will be sharing some of Myka with others, because that is who she is now. I'm ok with it, as long as she includes me when she shares," Kelli retorted, and then gasped while covering her mouth when she realized what she had said.

"Well, I didn't mean to pry and judge, and I'm sorry. I just want to know that my babies are safe, and are being careful. You will be careful won't you?"

"Yes, mom, we will be careful," I replied. "And if we are able to form the permanent bond between us then there will be a lot more magical protection added to the mix as well."

I realized my mistake at that moment, having mentioned that Kelli and I had not yet permanently bonded with each other. That led to more questions, and we were asked point blank whether we had considered just letting the opportunity pass without forming the bond so that I could go back to being a human girl rather than a Neko. It made my heart jump in my chest when both Kelli and I shot that idea down with no hesitation at all. If at all possible, we were going to figure out how to make my transformation permanent and all that that entailed.

"Look," my dad interrupted quickly. "They clearly have made a well thought out decision, and we need to trust them and let them follow their hearts. Otherwise they will resent us for getting in the way of something that they clearly feel is very important."

"I know, Dan, I know," my mom replied. "But this is just so different, and..."

"No buts, Mary. This is their decision and their life to live. We will let them live it and be here to offer advice when we can, and always love them both."

And with that my dad effectively ended a line of questioning that was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable, and both Kelli and I were grateful to him for the reprieve.

"Well now that that's settled," Kelli's dad piped up. "What are your plans for the rest of today and the rest of the weekend girls?"

It was Kelli that jumped in first and said, "Well, I have a few errands to run that may take a couple of hours, and then I thought Myka and I might go to see the new museum exhibit a little bit later."

"That sounds like a lot of fun," her mom replied.

"Then, a bit later, Myka and I have to get ready because we were going to go and spend the night at the cabin," Kelli said, with a shy little giggle.

My dad shook his head then and muttered with a grin, "God, I don't even want to know. Just make sure you two bring enough blankets and such because even though it is normally warmer here, it can still get a bit chilly at night. And just for the record, if we were all a little younger, two of us might have already claimed that spot."

My mom looked scandalized and smacked him on the arm, while Kelli's parents just chuckled at the joke.

"Anyway," Kelli said while jumping up and giving me a quick kiss. "I have to get going or I'm going to run out of time."

"Later babe," I called after her as she headed for the door. "And hurry back. I already miss you."

Kelli waved as she grabbed her keys and headed out to her car, a definite bounce in her step, just another thing that I loved about her. Once she left, our dads had some questions for me too. Guy questions. Our moms wanted to know about the things that were going on in our lives, especially because of the magic that we were involved with now, while our dads wanted to know if I could do any cool stuff with it. It really made me laugh at how like a couple of little kids they were while they were quizzing me about my awesome new super powers, as they put it.

I showed both of our dads that I was much stronger now, by beating them both easily in arm wrestling, and by picking each of them up and carrying them around the room, princess style. That got several laughs and a couple of surprised gasps. I mentioned that my senses, my endurance, and my agility had also improved significantly, and this was tested by playing a little two on one basketball, which neither of my dads had any chance of winning. It was still a fun game for everyone, though. While everyone was marveling at what I could now do, I explained that if Kelli and I were able to seal the final bond between us that all of these improvements would get even better, and that seemed to give Kelli's dad pause, and he asked me to spar with him so that he could see what I might be capable of in a fight.

He held black belt rank in both Kenpo and Jiu Jitsu, and had given both Kelli and I some basic self-defense instruction while we were growing up. Now, however, the look in his eye was a bit more serious and he came at me fast and hard to see how I would react. I spent the next 10 minutes dodging punches and kicks, blocking only occasionally as I was not that advanced of a fighter. I managed to avoid getting put in several holds and landed one or two hits before he called a halt so we could both catch our breath.

"That was pretty impressive, don't you think, Steve," my dad said. "You were not holding back that much were you?"

"No I wasn't, and yes that was definitely impressive," he replied. "Myka, you used a lot of the things that I taught you and Kelli, but you did so much better than you should have been able to do with the level of instruction that I gave the both of you."

I beamed at the compliment that he paid me, because when it came to fighting, Kelli's dad was all business. The serious look he had on his face now, however, wiped the smile from my face and made me wonder what I had done wrong.

Seeing my concern he quickly said, "Hey little girl, I'm not mad. You just have a lack of form and control with your movements."

I noticed that my dad was nodding his head at this as well, and while he was no expert like Kelli's dad was, he knew enough to know what he was looking at.

"You have a lot of potential, and with your greater speed, strength, and agility you could be a hell of a fighter with the right training."

"But I don't want to be a fighter. I want to finish school and maybe do counseling, or some other job in psychology," I replied in a worried tone.

"I know that it is not something you want, and normally I wouldn't push you," he said then. "But with some of the things you have talked about today, it sounds like you might end up being in a situation where you need to defend yourself. Or more importantly, defend my Kelli. Do you get what I'm trying to say?"

I sighed again, knowing that by invoking Kelli's name he had already won any argument, and nodded that I understood. And he was right, some of what we talked about all morning was that we might run into possibly dangerous situations or into individuals that might want to harm us for what I had become. I remembered that I got lucky on New Year's when I had rescued Kelli, and I almost shuddered thinking about what would have happened if I had failed her. And then it hit me. If I trained to be able to defend ourselves, it might be possible to avoid whatever outcome I had seen in my dream, and that steeled my resolve to learn what I could.

"How often do you want to get together dad," I asked.

"Actually, little girl, I probably won't be the best person to work with you. You are more than a few hours away at school, and you also need someone who will be able to objectively train you. I will send you the contact info for a friend of mine, Richard Atkinson, who lives near your school. I will call Rick and let him know you and Kelli will be contacting him about lessons. Ok?"